The end of an auction era

These bulletin boards at the east entrance city hall used to be jammed with ads pinned cheek to jowl announcing upcoming bankruptcy auctions that the city would conduct on sites throughout the island.

Those who failed to pay their municipal business taxes would receive a notice which warning them that the city bailiff would show up at their door with buyers who would snap up their belongings unless they could cough up all outstanding doughs.

There was an entire cult built around this tradition, regulars would zoom around town following from one sale to another, some of which consisted of a pair of cross country skies in a basement, others had everything but the girl.

These auctions are pretty much dead forever, as the city has abolished the business tax as of January 1, 2008. In truth they've saddled the business tax onto commercial landlords who are then forced to collect it from tenants and pay it to the city from within their property taxes.

So now if a business fails to pay its business tax it's a dispute between the landlord and the tenant and there's no municipal bureaucrats zooming around anymore. Sorta sad to see this tradition end. Those five ads were from early May and the last one took place May 17.